Somebody's Baby
by Zukoscute2
Summary: xSequel to The Forgotten Siblingx Maiku's grown up the way he's suppose, and is now 13. There's a shroud of mysteries about his mother's foggy past, and he demands to know the truth.But when he finds the truth, can he handle it?
1. Prologue

**DISCLAIMER: don't own AVATAR.**

**WOO! let's hope this works for the best. ok, the sequel to The Forgotten Sibling! YES! heckatite! **

**There's a pattern in this series. anyone wanna care to guess wut it is?

* * *

**

Prologue

_12 Years Ago_

Rain hadn't come to the Fire Nation in years. Why did it have to come now? In this year, in this lifetime?

On this particular night?

Lightning did its crazy dance across the sky, thunder marched loudly across it too, but what was worst was the baby's wail that pierced the night.

The Fire Lady rubbed her temples as her husband tried using soothing firebending techniques to calm their son back to sleep. She had tried singing many lullabies lull her son, Prince Maiku to sleep, but none had worked.

Then, a crazy idea popped into her head. She doubted it would work, but she was willing to try anything now.

"Zuko, can I see Maiku?" The Lady asked. The Fire Lord nodded and handed his son to his wife. The screaming baby wailed louder as his mother sat down in a nearby rocking chair and began to sing quietly.

_He used to be somebody's baby__  
__Someone used to hold him close and rock him gently__  
__He used to be the light in someone's eyes__  
__He used to matter, he used to matter__  
__Someone cared if he lived or died__  
__Someone held him in their arms, when he cried__  
__And when he hurt, someone kept the world away__  
__Someone loved him, someone loved him__  
_  
_He used to be somebody's baby__  
__Someone used to hold him close and rock him gently__  
__He used to be the light in someone's eyes__  
__He used to matter, he used to matter__  
__He used to matter_

_That was then, that was so long ago__  
__Long before they came, and took his soul__  
__Long before he became invisible__  
__That was then, when he wasn't human garbage then_

_He used to be somebody's baby__  
__Someone used to hold him close and rock him gently__  
__He used to be the light in someone's eyes__  
__He used to matter, he used to matter__  
__He used to matter__  
__He used to be somebody's baby_

By a miracle of God, this calmed Maiku. The Fire Lord and Lady smiled at each other, placed their son back in his crib, and went back to bed.

Never noticing it had stopped raining.

* * *

**Like it? i hope you did**!

**Don't own **Somebody's Baby **it belongs to **Pat Benatar

**INSANITY AT ITS FINEST**  
**LONG LIVE THE HIPPIES!**

**Zukoscute2**


	2. Prince Maiku

**DISCLAIMER: me no own AVATAR.**

**ok... this is my 7th time trying to write this stupid chapter! I WILL FINISH IT!**

**and i've been trying to decide if Maiku should be a bender or not, and i have finally decided, Maiku will be a firebender. (even though the original version of this chapter, which is still in my broken computer, Maiku wasn't a bender at all)

* * *

**

Chapter 1: Prince Maiku

The room was painfully hot, and the metal of the room was starting to grow red from the onslaught of his bending. Sweat trickled down, into his eyes, and for a moment, he stopped, wiping it away, a then he continued. The fireballs seemed never ending, he would not give up, he would be strong, he would prove them wrong, he had too...

"Prince Maiku! That's enough!" The 13-year-old Prince Maiku, heir to the Fire Nation throne, fell to his knees, gasping. His Great Uncle Iroh came walking up, leaning onto his cane for support. He handed his great nephew a large water skin with hardly enough water to sate the poor boy's demands.

"Prince Maiku, you must not push yourself so hard. You will get too dehydrated. We almost lost you last time." Iroh said sternly. Maiku gasped, nodding.

"Yes Uncle."

* * *

He walked silently down the hall. He heard them laughing. Maybe he could get away this time, maybe they wouldn't notice him. Maybe...

"Hey Half-blood!" Maiku groaned. He had nearly made it to his room this time.

"How's it goin, Half-blood?" A boy from the group of noble-men's sons jeered cruelly.

"Have you managed to learn that new bending move, Half-blood?" The same boy taunted. Maiku grimaced at the boys.

"Shut up, Orozai, it's none of your business on my bending status. And I'm still better than you at hand-to-hand combat." Maiku said with finality. Orozai waved his hand.

"Yes, but firebending is more important." Maiku rolled his eyes.

"Well then, the next time some person manages to take away your bending, we'll see how important bending is." Orozai and his friends laughed.

"That'll never happen! My father would protect me!"

"No one's perfect." Maiku said gravely.

"He wouldn't protect you forever,"

"Dumb dumb." Maiku said under his breath. Orozai looked at him suspiciously.

"What did you say?" He snapped. Maiku gave him a cryptic smile.

"Nothing. Good day." He said with a nod, and walked away. Orozai called after him.

"That's right! Keep walking! You just know that you could never stand a chance against us! You're just running back to your blood-tainting mummy!" Maiku turned around, and charged at Orozai, roaring, and his fists blazing. Every time he talked to those bastards, his patience got tested, but this time, they had gone too far...

Maiku knocked Orozai to the ground, then tackled on him, and started punching the boy as hard as he could. The Prince gasped slightly when he felt a vast amount of weight crush his body to Orozai's, but did not stop hitting the other boy even as he felt other fists collide with his jaws and back.

But then, all the weight and punches were gone, and Maiku was staring into the only other pair of green eyes in the Fire Nation: his mother's.

The Fire Lady Kellie threw Orozai to his friends, and she gave them a small taste of her wrath.

"Listen to me now, and listen to me good, seeing as you haven't listened before. I am sick of you boys hitting my son, and I will get permission from my husband, the Fire Lord, to have your families moved to the coldest, most remote part of the South Pole if this continues. Understand?" The boys, with wide, frightened eyes, nodded, and scrambled away hastily. But as he walked away, Orozai grinned evilly at Maiku.

"Mikey, that is the fourth time this month you've fought with those boys! This has to stop!" Maiku frowned at the use of his mother's nickname.

"But mother, they insulted you this time!" The Prince cried out. The Fire Lady shook her head in dismissal.

"I don't care if they insulted Agni! This will stop!" Maiku turned his head and glared at the wall.

"Yes mother." He grumbled. His mother smiled weakly as they stood in front of his bedroom door.

"Good, now get cleaned up, dinner is in half an hour, Mikey." Maiku rolled his eyes.

"Yes. Oh, and another thing," Maiku said over his shoulder as he walked into his room.

"Stop calling me Mikey." The Fire Lady sighed and shook her head as her son slammed his door in her face.

* * *

Maiku drummed his fingers on the table impatiently. The clock chimed 9. Dinner should have started an hour ago. But it hadn't, his father hadn't shown up.

His green eyes rolled over to his mother as she leaned over to hear what a servant had whispered in her ear. It didn't matter to him. It had been the same thing for six years...

_"Where's daddy?" A seven-year-old Maiku asked. It was his seventh birthday, and his father had promised to come. But Zuko should have been there half an hour ago. A servant whispered something into his mother's ear, and she sighed as she looked at her son._

_"I'm sorry, Mikey, but something came up. Your father can't come." Maiku shook his head, and began to pound on the table with his fists._

_"Daddy promised he would come! Daddy promised!" The Fire Lady sighed. _

_"I'm sorry, Mikey." Maiku began to cry. His mother picked him up, and carried him to bed, the Prince beating at her back._

_"HE PROMISED!"_

Maiku frowned as the last two words of that memory echoed through his head. He hadn't talked to his father in six years. He had seen him, but never talked to him. And he had enough. He stood up, and walked to the door.

"Maiku! Where are you going!" His mother demanded.

"I give up! Father never comes! I GIVE UP!" Maiku yelled over his should, and slammed the door behind him.

Out of another door leading into the same room, in strode a tall figure with a scar over his left eye.

"Kellie! I made it to dinner! For once, no new scroll to go over!" He said happily as he wrapped his arms around his wife. She just sighed.

"Kellie, where's Maiku?" Fire Lord Zuko asked. She looked down.

"He's given up, Zuko."

* * *

Maiku stalked towards the library. When he had been younger, he had spent endless hours there, sometimes for studying, other times to hide away from someone wanting to punish him.

The Prince realized he was walking into a strange part of the library, but didn't really care. He just wanted to walk and fume, and that was just what he was going to do.

But eventually, the library became a single hallway made of cold, grimy stone, spiraling ever downwards into the dark. Maiku lit a flame in his hands for light and warmth.

Wooden shelves that were as high as his waist lined the walls of the descending hallway, but no books were on them.

Soon, Maiku noticed the mold growing on the walls and grimaced. This place seemed more like the dungeons than the library.

After who-knows-how-long down in the dark, Maiku finally spied a book. It was on the bottom shelf and on his right. He hastilly sat down on the stairs and picked up the book, running his fingers along the cover.

The book was strange, it looked to be leather, but felt nothing of the sort. It was hard, but appeared to have been well used in its lifetime. There were gold letterings on the front, but Maiku did not understand the strange language. He opened the book, hoping to find drawings, illustrations,_ anything_ that would help him understand the book, but found none. The only drawings were a map on the back cover, but not even that helped much, seeing the notes were written in the same language as the rest of the book. And lots of pages were marked with pieces of paper, but held no clues to the contents. One piece of paper marking a page had a drawing of a man on a cross, but poorly done.

Then, Maiku heard footsteps coming down the hall. He bit back a gasp of surprise, and hurried down the stairs, extinguishing his flame, and once he rounded away from the stranger, he he pressed himself against the wall.

The person seemed to stop, and suddenly, Maiku realized that he hadn't put the book back on the shelf.

Eventually, the person went back up the stairs and Maiku released a breath he just then realized he had been holding.

The Prince relit his flame, and walked back up the stairs, and saw the book had been put back on the shelf, with a note on top:

_Meet me in the main hall of the library tomorrow night at midnight._

The boy read. His eyes widened. They had known he had been there.

_Well, I suppose it was rather obvious._

Maiku sighed, and retired for the night.

* * *

Maiku crept down the hall, and pressed his ear against the door to his parents' bedroom. They were asleep. Good.

The Prince couldn't help but smile as he remembered nights from long ago, when he had had nightmares, he would come crying down the hall, pound on his parents' door, and his mother would always sweep him up in her arms and sing him his special lullaby. She had even told him it was his lullaby, and his alone. No one else in the world knew his song. It made Maiku feel special and loved.

Maiku walked into the library, and nearlyu gasped when he saw that it was his mother in one of the plush chairs next to an oil lamp, reading a book; waiting for him. _She_ was the one who went down into that dungeonous part of the library?

"Glad that you made it, Mikey." The Fire Lady said with a cryptic smile as she set her book down, next to the oil lamp.

"How did you like my book?" She asked innocently. It left Maiku sputtering.

"You, your, how, you knew, that, that was YOUR book?" Maiku managed. His mother nodded.

"Yes. But you probably didn't understand a word, correct?" The Prince nodded dumbly.

"Thought so." Maiku sat in one of the soft chairs across from his mother.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" He asked. His mother smirked.

"You came, Mikey. So it's obvious you're the one who wanted to talk." Maiku bit back a growl.

"Fine. What was that book? Why is it there? Why do you have it? What is it about? Why is the writing in it so neat?" In the back of his mind, there was another question Maiku dared not asked. But it taunted him, daring him to ask, daring him to find the answer.

"Who are you?" The Prince asked. All of his life, Maiku had known only that a shroud of shadows hid the mysteries of who his mother really was. The only other person who had a clue, was his father. But he wasn't giving that up anytime soon.

His mother sighed, and looked at the rug.

"If only I could. If only you were older." She said sadly. Maiku's eyes narrowed.

"_Older_? Mom, you say that everytime I ask you! EVERY AGNI FORSAKEN TIME! And what do you mean, _only if you could_? Mom, you're Fire Lady! You're one of the most powerful people on earth! (Next to dad, the Avatar, and the King of Ba Sing Se) You can do anything you want! There are no restrictions on family secrets!" Maiku shouted. He hated this. Everytime he asked someone who seeme to know his mother, they only said: "Go ask your father." or "You're too young too know."

"Mikey, it's not that easy. You're not ready to handle the truth." Kellie said, regret shining in her eyes. Maiku stood up, his fists flaming.

"Why isn't it easy? And I'm not ready! Mother, I've been ready since the first time I asked!" maiku felt his inner fire respond to his emotions, and he let loose a fireball. It had not been aimed at anythng in particular, but it went straight at his mother. She simply held her hand out, and the fireball stopped right in front of it. She closed her hand, and the fireball dissipated.

"What is so bad that you can't tell me?" Maiku asked, feeling tears roll gently down his cheeks. Great. Now he was crying. He remembered days when Orozai had called him weak, that he didn't have what it took to make it in the world. Maybe, just maybe, Orozai was right.

Maiku crawled up to his mother, and looked straight up into her green eyes. His eyes. They were just like his eyes. People had said he looked exactly like his father before he had been scarred, except that he had his mother's eyes. But proof that he was his father's son was that there was a little crescent under his left eyes, symbolizing his father's scar.

"What? What is it?" Maiku asked. His mother just looked down at him. He buried his face into his mother's lap. She just ran her hand over his head.

"Hush, Maiku, hush." She said quietly. Maiku suddenly felt drowsy. He sighed when his mother began to sing his lullaby.

_He used to be somebody's baby__  
__Someone used to hold him close and rock him gently__  
__He used to be the light in someone's eyes__  
__He used to matter, he used to matter__  
__Someone cared if he lived or died__  
__Someone held him in their arms, when he cried__  
__And when he hurt, someone kept the world away__  
__Someone loved him, someone loved him_

_He used to be somebody's baby__  
__Someone used to hold him close and rock him gently__  
__He used to be the light in someone's eyes__  
__He used to matter, he used to matter__  
__He used to matter_

_That was then, that was so long ago__  
__Long before they came, and took his soul__  
__Long before he became invisible__  
__That was then, when he wasn't human garbage then_

_He used to be somebody's baby__  
__Someone used to hold him close and rock him gently__  
__He used to be the light in someone's eyes__  
__He used to matter, he used to matter__  
__He used to matter__  
__He used to be somebody's baby_

Maiku had never really listened to the words, but as he fell asleep, the words comforted him, but gave him a sense of foreboding.

That was the last thing that passed through Maiku's mind before he fell asleep.

* * *

**WOO! I DID IT! After about... uh... looks at clock umm... started at seven... twelve hours... 16... minus about 6... ok, after about 2 months, seven tries, and about 10 hours of on and off typing, i have finally gotten chapter 1 posted! I FEEL SO PWOUD OF MYSELF! **

**yes, Maiku did seem like a bit of a cry baby. but, i'm gonna make up for it in the next chapter.**

**i do not own **Somebody's Baby**. that song belongs to **Pat Benatar.

**Rose: I do believe i already told you why this isn't on ff. net. thank you. i don't plan to ever stop writing. ever.**

**Yashaqueen: how DARE you suggest that i pair Mai and Zuko together! THAT PAIR MAKES ME SICK AND I WANT TO HURT MAI FOR EVER LIKING HIM! Mai would never become a caring mother, she's a btch.**

**good day to you all, and I WANT REVIEWS! REVIEWS ARE FOOD! (hasn't Spleef given this speech to her reviewers?)**

**INSANITY AT ITS FINEST****  
****LONG LIVE THE HIPPIES!**

**Zukoscute2**


	3. She's More Different

**DISCLAIMER: don't own AVATAR.**

**Not really much to say… But I know this is gonna be fun to write.**

**--**

Chapter 2: She's More Different Then You Think

Maiku groaned as he woke up. He expected to see the ceiling of his canopy bed, but he was greeted with the large expanse of the ceiling of the library.

Memories of his argument with his mother came back to his mind, and the Prince sighed.

He smiled gently when he saw the night cloak covering him and the sitting pillow placed under his head.

Good ol' mom.

Mom.

His brow furrowed as he closed his eyes, feeling pained by the fact that his mother refused to tell him anything. But, he was in the Fire Palace library. The greatest source of knowledge in the world, next to the great Wan Si Tou's library, which had been lost forever when the Avatar and his companions had gone into it. For once, the Avatar had made a mistake.

With a groan as he stood up, Maiku folded the night cloak and tucked it under his arm, put away the sitting pillow, and went to work.

"Good morning, my Prince. Haven't seen you in my library in many years." Maiku turned around to face the book keeper of the library, who was an old, hunched over, ghost of a man with a walking stick.

"Good morning, Yan." Maiku bowed for the book keeper. Yan grinned wryly, showing that there were few teeth left in his mouth.

"You need not bow for me, Prince Maiku. I do not deserve it." The Prince stared at Yan with a deadpan expression, his green eyes boring into the book keeper's sly, warm brown ones.

"Yes, you do deserve it. Yan, you have kept one of the greatest libraries in the world great by caring for it, and its books." Yan smiled.

"Thank you, my Prince." Yan whispered.

"So, what have you need to find now?" Yan asked. Maiku looked towards one of the giant windows in the library.

"I need information on my mother. Anything that will tell me about her past." He said. And suddenly felt two fingers whap him on the back of the head.

"Ouch! Hey, what was that for!" Maiku snapped, whirling around to face Yan. The old book keeper was staring back at him with just an intense expression.

"Boy, I've been waiting seven years for you to ask me that!" Maiku was puzzled.

"Does that mean you have records on my mother?" Yan sighed, then grinned.

"Come, sit with me in my office, and I will tell you over breakfast. Your mother told me to keep an eye on you last night." Begrudgingly, Maiku followed.

--

"So… What do you know about my mother?" Maiku asked as Yan poured him a cup of hot jasmine tea. Maiku forced the (what he believed to be) vile liquid down his throat just so that he would not be rude. A habit he picked up from his father.

"Well, rumors have flown around for years. There is no true tale about where she came from. No one believes that crackpot story she told when she first arrived at the Royal Court 17 years ago with your father about how his crew found a strange island that she lived on." Maiku tilted his head.

"Why not?" Yan just stared at him.

"The ocean ain't that big, boy. It would be impossible for an island to be hidden from the rest of the world for so long. Doesn't that make sense?" Maiku nodded thoughtfully as he munched on some crumble cake.

"So, people made up their own tales about the Fire Lady. Some say she was a daughter of a great spirit, sent to Fire Lord Zuko to help end the war. Others say she is a demon, (the person who started that one must have suffered from the Fire Lady's temper.) who cast a spell over the Fire Lord. And others say she is simply a normal girl Zuko found at a market, found attractive, and she got lucky. But, no one really knows." Maiku growled, and his fist pounded down onto the table.

_"Your fables aren't good enough!"_ Maiku hissed, his eyes glinting angrily. Yan just stared at him calmly.

_"I need to know the truth about my mother!"_ Maiku snapped, and stormed out of Yan's office.

The book keeper shook his head.

_"Did I do something wrong, Master?"_ Yan asked the air.

_"No, Yan. I was hoping something like this would happen."_

_--_

Maiku stormed through the halls of the Palace, and everywhere he went, servants pressed themselves up against the wall, fearing that his wraith might fall upon them.

Eventually, Maiku reached the door to his parents' room. He stared at the giant, golden insignia that was painted onto the double doors.

He was angry. Angry at his parents. Angry at the fact that everyone left him in the dark.

The Prince had never been into his parents' room, and right now, he wanted to know what lay beyond those giant doors.

Looking around to make sure no one was there, Maiku then opened the doors, and strode inside.

The "grand bedroom" that his parents slept in wasn't so grand. The only thing that made the room special was the giant canopy bed in the room, the canopy reaching the ceiling.

The Prince noticed a little stage off to his left, and grinned. Just walking into his parents' room was forbidden, but the thought of walking out onto their private balcony that overlooked the Royal Family's training room was so forbidden it made him smile impishly.

He knew that this was when his parents trained, so Maiku carefully crept onto the balcony, and stared cautiously over the edge.

Sure enough, both the Fire Lord and Fire Lady were down below, both wearing the same training outfit. (It looked big on his mother. He had a feeling his mother had raided his father's wardrobe.)

The training arena had a small moat surrounding it, so his mother could practice her waterbending also, and there were several target dummies surrounding the moat.

His father and mother both had pulled their hair back in the same style Maiku always kept his in, even though the Fire Lady's ponytail was closer to her head, for her hair ribbon was shorter.

His father growled, took a deep breath, and moved his arms in a circular motion. One of his hands shot out, and a spark of blue leaped from his fingertips. His mother clapped.

"Very good, Zuko. You have finally managed to create lightning." Zuko wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"Iroh should have been here." The Fire Lord glared at his wife.

"You're being too optimistic. It was hardly anything compared to what you and Azula can do." The Fire Lady kicked her husband quickly in the stomach. The Fire Lord doubled over, clutching his stomach tightly while his wife glared at him harshly.

Maiku couldn't help but gasp slightly. His mother was known for sometimes lightly hitting people, and while it sometimes stung, she had never been known to kick someone outside of a spar, and here, she had kicked her husband.

"We agreed to never again mention your sister." The Fire Lady hissed. Zuko looked up at Kellie apologetically.

"I'm sorry, Kellie." The Fire Lady smiled weakly, and hugged her husband around his neck and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. Maiku made a slight gagging sound, and for a second, he thought he saw his mother's eyes flicker up to him. But then again, it might not have happened.

"So, what have you been working on?" Zuko asked. Kellie sighed, and looked away. She pulled her legs up to her chest, and looked away.

Zuko gently ran his fingers through his wife's ponytail.

"You can tell me. You know that."

"Remember that night, when we ran away? And, when I fought-" Zuko hushed her. That memory had always been painful to her, and he didn't want her to continue to the brink of tears.

"Yes. I remember. What about it?" The Fire Lady stood up slowly, and faced the moat.

"Remember how I used the water to shield the lightning, but then-" The Fire Lord nodded.

"Yes."

"Well, I've been trying to do that myself. Since water conducts electricity. And, uh, ya…" His mother grinned sheepishly. All was silent for a few minutes.

"Well? Go on." Zuko nodded. His wife took a calming breath, and went through the motions for lightning. The cold-blooded fire leapt from her fingers towards the wall, and the Fire Lady raised a blob of water to absorb it.

She felt sweat stand on her brow as she tried to keep the lightning contained within the water.

Her hands trembled as her mind wavered back to that night, 17 years ago… The water wrapping around her arm, the spark traveling down it until…

His mother gave out a cry before she fell to her knees, the water fell back to the small moat, and the lightning was sent flying to Zuko.

The Fire Lord held out his hand, and felt the spark travel into his hand. He guided the lightning down through his stomach, and to one of the training dummies, which caught fire from the bolt.

Maiku watched as his father embraced his mother. She sobbed into his chest, and he heard her mumble.

"I, I, I can't do it." She whispered. His father rested his head on hers.

"Shh… It's ok." He whispered reassuringly.

Maiku backed away from the platform. This, this was his mother? Never, had he seen her cry. He had never thought his mother would cry.

That just shows how little he knew.

--

**Who's the mysterious voice! XD**

**damn site isn't allowing me to use the ruler/dividing thingies.**

**Ya… I don't really like this chapter.**

**INSANITY AT ITS FINEST  
LONG LIVE THE HIPPIES!  
**

**Zukoscute2**


	4. Uncle Aaron

**DISCLAIMER: don't own AVATAR.**

**Hey hey hey, people, the one year anniversary for this series was on the 29th! And I didn't get this chapter up on the 29th, like I wanted to. I feel so ashamed. **

**--**

Chapter 3: Uncle Aaron

Maiku skipped dinner that night. Astonishment, surprise, those were all understatements for what he felt.

_Mom cried? Well, she IS human. And… Arg! It just doesn't seem like mom!_

Maiku thought, confusion and anger swirling and joining within his mind. The tired child sighed, and his green eyes fluttered closed; his breathing evened, and within minutes, he was fast asleep.

--

"_What is this place?" Maiku asked, looking around, bewildered. He was in some strange tunnel, a bright, neon shade of blue, and painful to look at._

"_Welcome, Prince." Maiku's head snapped towards who had spoken to him. It was a man in a deep blue robe, the hood pulled down, shading his face so Maiku couldn't see it. The man was hunched over, his hands grasping a gnarled walking stick._

"_Who are you? What is this place?" Maiku demanded, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. The man, the Master of the Worlds, chuckled._

"_Why, this is the way to the answer to all your questions, my dear boy!" The man laughed. Maiku took a step back._

"_You mean, you know the answer to why girls act so funny once a month!" Maiku gaped. If he had been in range, the Master would have wacked Maiku with his stick._

"_No, foolish Maiku! The answer to those questions you've been asking your mother!" The Master snapped. Maiku's green eyes widened. The Master pointed down the tunnel with his stick._

"_Walk down this way. Do not stop, do not falter, do not look back. Continue till you reach a house that seems, in any manner, vaguely familiar to you, you will go to that house. Understand?" Maiku nodded slowly, unsurely, his face set with determination._

_The Prince walked down the way with confident strides. Out of the corner of his eye, a beautiful woman smiled mysteriously at him._

A mermaid…?_ Maiku thought incredulously. _

_The Prince held his hands to his face as he reached the end of the tunnel, fierce light blinding him._

_--_

He was standing on a road. It was dark, and solid. Maiku bent over and let his fingers trail along it. The road was not made of any fine stone. What was the material?

"Hey kid! Halloween ain't for another two months!" Maiku stood up to face who called him. Two boys his age, sitting on a stoop surrounding by withering plants, were laughing and pointing at his clothes.

_I should be laughing at them._

Maiku thought sourly. _They _were the ones wearing strange pants and shoes, and their clothes were all sorts of colors! What nation in the name of Agni did they belong too?

"Man, he looks like that one guy off that show your mom used to watch. What was his name? Zuko! Ya, that's it! He's gotta be one of those enthusiasts!" The second boy jeered. Maiku spun around on his heels to face to the two boys.

"You know my father? How!" The boys laughed harder.

Maiku frowned deeply, and forced the fire within down and walked the other way, listening to the boys laugh.

The world was so strange. Such strange plants and buildings they had here!

The Prince heard some sort of humming behind him, and just barely managed to escape a strange metal box (more compact and more colorful then the tanks used in the old War.) drive past him. Maiku ran after the strange tank-device, but it was faster then he was, and went around the bend in the road before he could catch up.

As Maiku rounded the bend, he saw a large blue and white house. It seemed vaguely familiar…

Maiku walked up the house, entranced. He moved slowly up the grey walkway leading to the front door, his boots sounding strange against what paved it.

He walked up the steps, and knocked twice on the door. About 10 seconds later, there was the muffled patter of feet on the floor behind the door and a young voice calling out, "I'll get it, dad!"

A girl, who appeared to be Maiku's age, appeared at the door. She stared at him hard for a minute, before her face broke out into a look of sheer joy, her smile wide, and her mouth open in a squeal. The girl turned around and clambered up the stairs that were in the entrance hall, calling up the stairs,

"Dad! Dad, he's here!" The girl looked back at Maiku.

"And he looks just like Aunt Kellie said he would!" Maiku's eyes widened.

_Aunt Kellie…? Mom never mentioned having siblings… She never even mentioned going to visit people!  
_

Suddenly, Maiku's attention was directed up to the sound of feet thudding down the hall that the stairs the girl was sitting on led up to.

Suddenly, a tanned face topped with well cut, extremely short (well, it was short for Maiku's standard's) brown hair and half a chin and a cheek covered with shaving cream peered down at Maiku. The Prince gulped, feeling nervous as the grey eyes of the man stared at him.

The rest of the man appeared as he ran down the stairs, clothed in only a towel around his waist (the girl didn't seem to be phased by his state of dress) and the man flung open the screen door separating Maiku from the entrance hall and embraced him tightly, and Maiku felt the lather of shaving cream still on the man's cheek being rubbed into his hair.

"I've waited so many years for this." The man's deep voice whispered into his hair.

"Who are you?" Was all Maiku could manage as the man strangle him with a bear hug. The man sighed, let go of Maiku, and led him into some sort of den.

The den came with a fireplace, and above it, hung two portraits. A glossy one, and an oil painting. The glossy one showed the strange man and girl, both smiling, the man with his hands on her shoulders. The second one, the oil painting, hanging to the left of the glossy portrait, was of three people all in red; two with black hair, one with red hair, and the adult with a large bloody red scar over his left eye. That was _his_ family portrait!

"I'm your Uncle Aaron, Maiku."

--

**Ya… this chapter didn't come out the way I wanted it, but beggars can't be choosers. and the part about Maiku asking the Master about girls acting so funny once a month, well, I couldn't resist. XD and yes, i do plan to give Maik the answer to his question eventually!  
**Inner Devil: keyword: eventually.

**INSANITY AT ITS FINEST  
LONG LIVE THE HIPPIES! **

Zukoscute2


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